You can use the BINARY option of the INPUT FROM statement to read control characters. Input sources often contain control characters that affect the format or quantity of data that you receive. For example, a text file might contain NUL ("\0") characters to terminate character strings. Without the BINARY option, ABL ignores all input on a line after the first NUL character. The BINARY option allows you to read all the data in the file, including any NUL and other non-printable control characters without interpretation.